Gospel Message: Anathema Against the Cross

Key verse(s)/quote(s):

“The philosopher puts his glass to his eye, looks at the cross, and then says, “I cannot see anything so very wonderful in it,  —  even with this splendid glass of mine, which more than can be seen by that poor, humble peasant; I do not care about such a system of religion as that; any simpleton can understand the cross.” So he passes by, and merely sneers at it.” - C.H. Spurgeon

“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” - 1 Corinthians 1:18

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” - Romans 3:23

Overview:

A few months ago, I was given the utmost of pleasures by being asked to preach my first ever “official” gospel message  –  it was also the first time I preached a message from the pulpit at my home church. We held an evening event for which we had established a theme of “It starts and ends at the cross”. It was an oddly nerve-wracking endeavor to prepare this message as I felt a weight from hosting such a lofty privilege as to handle a most poignant message carrying such extreme importance. Although there is an element of the Gospel in much if not all that I preach, it was different having a singular mandate to make the case for Christ and Christianity clear.

Please feel free to flip through the slides below or listen to the audio or simply watch …

Discuss the meaning of being “saved by grace”.

Question:

Discuss the meaning of being “saved by grace” in Ephesians 2:8-9.

Answer:

Before we can begin to talk about what it means to be “saved by grace” we must understand that which presupposes this need  –  that is the condition in which we find ourselves  –  dead and under God’s wrath. It only takes a cursory reading of Romans to see how Paul begins with God’s nature and then speaks of His wrath presenting an accurate context with which we must understand our reality. God is sovereign and righteous and His wrath is upon us (Romans 1:17-18). Furthermore, we see the state of all humanity clearly expressed as we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23, Romans 5:12).

Once again, in Ephesians, we see Paul start with the cold hard fact that we are “dead in [our] transgressions and sins”. We also see in verse 2 that we had once followed the ways of the world and the “ruler of the kingdom of the air”, which is especially harsh wording as that is the opposition to God on both a spiritual and physical level (note: opposition doesn’t imply God can’t do away with Satan if God wished it). We are called to always be heavenly focused on God’s will and not to be caught up in the world  –  remember we are in the world not of the world. And the spiritual charge is that the “ruler of the kingdom of the air” is Satan himself and we once followed …

What do we have in common with bald chickens?

Dear Friends,

Today, I had a dear sister in Christ send me a light-hearted article as she knows that I sometimes like to read these random tidbits because I find them humorous or simply interesting. This particular article caught my attention because I couldn’t help but be reminded of the parallels of what Christ has done for us and the story of these helpless bald chickens.

I don’t intend to diminish Christ’s incomparable and amazing work of grace as it relates to my observations within this article. However, this heartening story of an anonymous “saviour” identifying a group of hatchery chickens to be saved without any reason or merit and bringing them to a “sanctuary”, a almost heavenly respite, is both touching and meaningful (not to be mistaken for anything “deep” ). To top it off, the lady who runs this animal recovery safe haven is even named Shepherd haha…

• In the article (link below), you can read how the chickens had grown abnormally due to their confinement and developed habits and tendencies that were self-destructive - doesn’t that sound like our sinful nature as we sometimes try and adapt to fit into our “cage” (the world)?
• Their “saviour” had not clearly identified why these chickens were chosen to be saved but stated they were selected merely because he didn’t have to reach down or up and just grabbed them from the middle shelf of cages - and yet our Heavenly Father came down and suffered, endured ridiculed, was bruised and died for us.
• Similar to these chickens we don’t

…

A “Bono fide” response to Christ’s unique identity and work

I came across an interesting blog post on U2’s Bono and his direct response to questions of faith. Occasionally, I have wondered about Bono’s real views on Christ as media and religious groups often like to speculate and disparage or leverage celebrities’ views on these topics.

I do not present this because Bono is any more significant to God than anyone else but merely for the reason that Bono stood up and provided a humble, clear, and direct response to a challenge to Christ’s identity and highlighted the unique gift of grace (all Christ’s work) that sets Christianity apart from all other worldviews. Sadly, many “Christians” would not stand up like this when put on the spot especially when they are a public figure. Additionally, his response seems genuine and hits at the core of how many people like to view Christ as merely a “good guy” and how that is unacceptable and nonsensical. He even addresses karma, its role in other faiths, and why it pales in comparison to God’s gift of grace.

As C.S. Lewis states (and Bono touches upon): “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level …